Two Canadian citizens who were living legally in the United States now face federal criminal charges over allegations that they participated in U.S. elections despite not being American citizens. The cases against Lise Marie Johnson and Diane Wendy Curley were announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida on October 22, 2026, as part of a six-person group of lawful permanent residents charged with election-related offenses. Johnson allegedly registered to vote and participated in the 2022 federal general election, while prosecutors say Curley voted in both the 2022 and 2024 federal general elections. Both remain presumed innocent. The cases arrive as the Trump administration places significantly greater emphasis on investigating and prosecuting alleged noncitizen voting, turning individual voter-registration cases into part of a much wider federal election-enforcement campaign.
Lise Marie Johnson Faces Both a False-Citizenship and Illegal-Voting Charge
Lise Marie Johnson, a 69-year-old Canadian national and lawful permanent resident, faces the more serious set of charges of the two Canadians named in the Florida announcement. Federal prosecutors say Johnson registered to vote in 2021 even though she was not a U.S. citizen and subsequently voted in the 2022 federal general election. A grand jury indicted her on two alleged offenses: making a false statement claiming U.S. citizenship in order to vote and voting illegally as an alien. Those are separate federal crimes with substantially different potential penalties. The false-citizenship allegation falls under a federal statute that makes it a crime to knowingly claim to be an American citizen in order to register or vote in a federal, state or local election. The offense carries a statutory maximum of five years in prison. The separate prohibition on voting by an alien in an election involving federal offices carries a maximum sentence of one year. Those figures are maximum penalties rather than predictions of what Johnson would receive if convicted; federal judges determine actual sentences after considering the charges, circumstances, sentencing rules and other legally relevant factors. The indictment itself also does not establish that Johnson knowingly misrepresented her citizenship or knowingly cast an unlawful ballot. It is a formal accusation approved by a federal grand jury, and the government would still have to prove the charged offenses beyond a reasonable doubt if the case proceeds to trial. That distinction is particularly important in election cases, where the difference between being incorrectly registered, mistakenly believing one is eligible and knowingly making a false citizenship claim can determine whether criminal liability exists. Federal law even contains a narrow statutory exception for certain noncitizens who had U.S.-citizen parents, lived permanently in the country before age 16 and reasonably believed they were citizens. The Justice Department’s October 22 announcement does not say that exception applies to Johnson, nor does it publicly provide her explanation for how she came to be registered.
The case also illustrates why lawful immigration status and voting eligibility are not the same thing in the United States. Johnson was described by prosecutors as a lawful permanent resident, commonly known as a green-card holder. Permanent residents can generally live and work in the country indefinitely and may eventually qualify to apply for naturalization, but permanent residence does not itself confer the right to vote in federal elections. Florida law likewise requires a person to be a U.S. citizen before becoming a registered voter. That makes the alleged 2021 registration a central part of Johnson’s case, rather than the 2022 ballot standing alone. The federal false-citizenship statute specifically requires prosecutors to establish a knowing false claim made for the purpose of registering or voting, which is one reason Johnson faces a felony allegation that carries a higher maximum punishment than the voting charge by itself. There can also be immigration consequences separate from any criminal sentence. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has stated that unlawful voting and false claims of U.S. citizenship can affect a permanent resident’s ability to establish the good moral character required for naturalization, and federal immigration law can make certain noncitizens deportable for unlawful voting or false citizenship claims. That does not mean Johnson will automatically lose her permanent-resident status or be removed from the United States; immigration consequences depend on the facts, the particular legal provision involved and any applicable exceptions. No such outcome was announced in her case. For now, the publicly established facts are much narrower: prosecutors allege that a Canadian lawful permanent resident registered in 2021, knowingly claimed citizenship in connection with voting and cast a ballot in the 2022 federal general election. Johnson is one of three people in the October 22 Florida group charged by indictment with both a false-citizenship offense and illegal voting. Investigators involved in the six cases included Homeland Security Investigations, the Florida Department of State’s Office of Election Crimes and the Hernando County Supervisor of Elections, underscoring how federal immigration records, state election oversight and local voter records can converge in an election-crime investigation.
Diane Wendy Curley Faces Allegations Tied to Two Federal Elections
Diane Wendy Curley, a 55-year-old Canadian national who is also a lawful permanent resident, faces a narrower criminal case but is accused of voting in more elections. According to federal prosecutors, Curley voted in both the 2022 and 2024 federal general elections despite not being a U.S. citizen. She was charged by information with illegal voting by an alien, an offense carrying a maximum penalty of up to one year in federal prison. Unlike Johnson, Curley was not identified in the Justice Department announcement as facing a separate felony charge for falsely claiming U.S. citizenship. That procedural difference matters. An indictment is issued by a grand jury, while an information is a charging document filed by a prosecutor; federal rules allow misdemeanor offenses punishable by one year or less to be prosecuted without requiring a grand-jury indictment. Because the federal alien-voting offense carries no more than one year of imprisonment, it falls within that misdemeanor framework. The use of an information should not be read as a finding that Curley admitted the allegation, nor does it establish that the government’s case is correct. The Justice Department explicitly stated that informations and indictments are accusations and that all six defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty. Federal law generally prohibits a noncitizen from voting in an election held wholly or partly to choose the president, vice president, presidential electors, senators or members of the House. Florida separately requires U.S. citizenship to register or vote. The Justice Department therefore alleges that Curley’s participation in the 2022 and 2024 federal general elections crossed both the citizenship boundary built into the voting system and the criminal prohibition Congress enacted for federal contests. What the October 22 release does not explain is how Curley became registered, when she first entered the voter rolls, what documents or declarations were involved, whether she has offered an explanation, or what evidence prosecutors intend to use to prove she acted knowingly. Those unanswered questions are likely to be significant as the case progresses.
Curley’s case is also unfolding during a much larger change in the federal government’s approach to alleged noncitizen voting. President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 14248 in March 2025 directing his administration to give greater priority to enforcing federal election laws, specifically identifying statutes that prohibit noncitizens from voting and falsely claiming U.S. citizenship. By 2026, that policy had become visible through a series of Justice Department prosecutions around the country. Only three days before the Florida announcement involving Curley and Johnson, the Justice Department announced charges against 28 foreign nationals in California under an initiative it called “Operation Protect the Vote.” Other October announcements covered alleged election offenses in states including Idaho, Kentucky, Minnesota, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania. That wider context helps explain why two Canadian permanent residents in Florida have become part of a national political and legal story rather than remaining obscure local cases. At the same time, individual prosecutions should not be treated as evidence by themselves of how frequently noncitizen voting occurs across the electorate. Federal officials have argued that stricter enforcement is necessary to protect citizen voting rights, while election specialists and civil-rights advocates have disputed some of the administration’s broader estimates and warned that aggressive investigations can create fear among lawful voters, including naturalized citizens. Those debates do not resolve the evidence against Curley or Johnson; their guilt or innocence must be determined from their own cases. What the Florida charges clearly demonstrate is how consequential a voter-registration or voting decision can become for someone who holds a green card but has not become a citizen. Curley allegedly cast ballots in two federal general elections and now faces a federal misdemeanor carrying possible imprisonment, while Johnson faces an additional felony allegation tied to citizenship representation. Both cases remain at the accusation stage. As the Justice Department expands its election-crime enforcement effort, the eventual court records—pleas, motions, evidence and judicial findings—will matter far more than the initial announcement in determining exactly what happened and why.
